Prototype game review

Prototype's Alex Mercer can modify his body into all sorts of weapons. Images courtesy of Activision.

In Activision's Prototype, you are Alex Mercer, who awakens in a morgue with amnesia and incredible powers that allow him to consume people physically and mentally, absorbing their memories. He finds himself in the midst of a zombie-like plague which, although it has given him superpowers, turns other folks into monsters. His quest is to survive the raging war between soldiers and zombies while he sorts out his connection to a conspiracy behind the plague.

Prototype's science-gone-awry premise and Alex's resulting superpowers are reminiscent of The Hulk and Spider-Man, and his quest to recover his past evokes Wolverine and Jason Bourne. Add a good dose of zombie apocalypse and vampirism, and you have the ingredients for Prototype.

Hits: Prototype has many virtues, but my favorite thing about it is the flying. Alex has the ability to fly by spreading his arms and gliding, as if his jacket were a hang-glider. It connects with me because the way Alex soars is very much the way I glide and fly in the recurrent flying dreams I've had since I was a little boy.

Whenever Alex flies, it feels familiar. On nearly all of the mini-games where you jump from a high perch and try to land on a tiny target far away, I score a gold medal on the first try. If Activision stripped away everything else about Prototype but this and called the game Flying Boy, I think I'd still love it.

But flying isn't the only good thing about Prototype. The game's most brilliant innovation -- the thing that should be copied by all other game developers -- is its freedom of movement. And I do mean FREEDOM. Alex charges around town with such breathtaking ease that simple movement itself is a rush. Alex is able to sprint at super speed, make prodigious leaps and glide, and he can defy gravity by running straight up walls.

The game design brilliance is in how natural it is to do these things. Just as Alex would move by seeing where he wanted to go and just going there -- automatically hurdling obstacles, going up walls and leaping with little conscious thought -- so does the player. You simply aim Alex and he GOES. No tricky button-mashing to jump over cars or climb walls like in a platformer. You can keep your mind on where you want to go, without worrying about the trivialities of how you get there.

The only time you need to hit a button is the transition from running to flying, and that's necessary to detach your gravity-defying feet from walls in order to free-fall.

Not only should the action game genre follow suit on Prototype's movement design philosophy, but shooters could take a lesson, too. One of the most annoying aspects of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: World at War is getting caught on low obstacles when you're trying to move around. What if you could vault or scramble over walls simply by moving toward them, keeping your mind on the firefight instead of being distracted by navigating a simple landscape? It would also eliminate all the ridiculous Halo-jumping in COD games.

The role-playing elements of the game are great, too. You can apply the life force or biomass you consume to various abilities, and thus enhance Alex's abilities with whichever attacks or movement style you enjoy the most. I especially like to fly and throw stuff, so when my Alex runs to a rooftop and picks up an air conditioner to throw, the helicopters better look out!

Misses: The main thing that bothers me about Prototype is in the vampiric aspect of the story, not gameplay. Alex is the protagonist, but it's hard to maintain my sympathy for him as he consumes person after person with such callous brutality and indifference. In some cutscenes he seems thoughtful, yet he shows now reaction to the horrifying carnage he leaves in his own wake. Why doesn't this bother him more? His lack of remorse is the troubling thing. He truly seems like a monster.

As science fiction, the story falls short in explaining how his mind-boggling powers work. For example, I love to fly, but I can discern no logical reason for Alex to be able to fly, within the framework of the story.

My only real complaint about the gameplay is that at times the battles become far too chaotic. I hate being hammered from all sides by a mob. I prefer to fight my battles on a smaller scale, not the frenzied riots in Prototype.

Recommendation: Prototype is fun because of the rip-roaring, exuberant freedom is gives you. When Alex Mercer runs, nothing can stand his way or slow him down. While the physical freedom is thrilling, the amoral freedom to murder countless people and consume them might give some players pause. But if you've ever enjoyed a vampire story, Prototype probably won't make you lose any sleep over moral dilemmas.

Despite its carnage, Prototype might actually make me sleep better. When Alex runs up a skyscraper, leaps into the air, spreads his arms and flies, it's just like a dream.

Grade: A

Bryan Crowson is copy desk chief at The News but dreams of being The Flying Boy. Write to him at bcrowson@bhamnews.com

Birmingham News video game reviewer Shane Ivey is one of the people you can devour in Prototype!

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